Another backdated post…

So, we got back in Beijing on a Monday and I just took the day off to rest. Beijing seemed bland, sorry, but it did. It represented everything that I disliked about what was happening in Xinjiang. I craved Kvass, and no one knew what it was. The 新疆办公室 had a restaurant and they didn’t even know what it was. No one from Xinjiang worked in the government representative office for Xinjiang. That was odd. My delicious 串 no longer tasted as good, well, Yinchuan did that to me more than anything else, but Xinjiang sealed the deal.

Back at work, I got a massive project dumped on me. I say dumped because yes, it was dumped on me. DeAgostini, putting together a F-86 mag with companion DVD. This was a pitch more than anything else, trying to land a long-term contract producing it on a regular basis for 100,000 RMB an issue locally. It was a 2-month project and was guarded by the boss with hostility. Needless to say, by the time I was freed up from the celeb research for Dewar’s, it was slowly dumped on me. First it was the video sourcing. At this stage I demanded to be in the loop fully and found that there was not only no loop at all, but the 5 weeks prior had been wasted. There was a timeline, but nothing, not even planning had been started. It was literally ignored for 5 weeks with 3 weeks left to act. I sourced pictures and video from the Pentagon, the RCAF, Australia, Pakistan, Taiwan and Japan. I found a writer for the magazine and an English editor and voice-over talent who also polished the script. I scripted the animation which got handed off to a handful of amateurs working out of a net cafe. We even flew them in, had the boss explain it all and deliver his version of the translated brief.

Well, crunch time came and the animation was wrong, the footage was short, the designer couldn’t read English or even begin to comprehend it, and it was the middle of the night with me being screamed at for emailing everyone with a copy of the script which I was told was final… but ended up being the wrong one (I was given the wrong one). I take the hit, and am being threatened with my job regardless of the completion of the project.

So, step back a second and look 20 days prior to this. I was hit up by a recruiter at LRW for a position in LA. Jude was planning to get to LA for school in the Fall and it seemed too much like fate. Overconfident of the new job, I was no longer ripe for taking abuse from the fuck.

Back to the threat. I stayed silent at first and went back to work. The boss hovered over me, ripped out the router and killed my productivity, I no longer had network and neither did anyone else. Claiming that I was wasting time chatting… no proof, because I had been working another one of those infamous 600-hour months. Solid work, no bullshit. I go back to working on the video with my own method of completing the shortest sections and most complete sections first. No, this was not “right” apparently, it must be done in sequential order because the dumbass didn’t understand how a DVD works. Media mogul, my ass. The threats grew harsher and he started demanding a confrontation, goading me to violence.

This was the final straw, I quit right there and started gathering my stuff with the mention that I expected my salary for the month on time, my severance pay and overtime for me as well as the rest of the staff. He responded with a death threat, screaming, spitting, more screaming, shoving me around physically (yes assault) and not allowing me to leave. I responded by calling the police. Actually, he called 119 first, which was frivolous, claiming that I was trespassing. I picked up the phone and explained what was going on, they told him it was not an emergency and to not call them.

So, about 3am and I have the cops downstairs. I lead them up where he lies and claims that he does not even know me and I never worked there. I give them my card. He responds saying that he fired me months ago for “refusing to work”. I show them client emails from 2 hours ago. He bribes them. I demand my work permit and he is stupid enough to say that he paid for it while claiming that I was dangerous. Cops gave me the address and phone number for the Bureau of Labor.

And, as this is a backdated post (it is actually July now.. yes, I AM that lazy), I am going to sum up everything else to get it out of the way and limit it to one post.

The boss actually refused to accept that I quit and refused to fire me. His idea was one of blackmail instead. Despite unpaid overtime, serious amounts of unpaid overtime, and as a counter to any charges I was prepared to file, he decided to sue for me being late. I frivolous lawsuit, but one that could be dragged on and on. His plan was this:
1) File charges against me
2) Serve me papers via Kuaidi that I would have to sign for
3) Use the fact that my visa was almost up as a declaration of “flight risk”
4) Use this “flight risk” as a way to have my passport confiscated until the case was resolved.
5) Ensure that with my lack of passport that I would be unable to leave Beijing, leave China, legally work, extend my visa or even make adequate preparations to leave China.
6) Use the fact that I am not working or able to have an income to destroy my ability to defend myself in the Chinese courts.
7) Bankrupt me and have me beg for his mercy and come crawling back, probably working for nothing to pay him off.

HAHAHA, yeah right. This is ME we are talking about. I ensured that step 2 never happened by not answering the door. Fail plan is fail.

This left me free to use up my 1-month left on the visa to prepare my departure, secure a new L visa from a visa agent (which has all kinds of fun involved that I am not going to relate for legal reasons), and get out of China on my own terms.

I tied him him with a shitstorm of legal issues, the rampant piracy, money laundering, gambling operations, drug dealing, tax evasion and of course the death threats with the Embassy CC’d on everything. All I wanted was a letter of release to give me my 30-days to prepare to leave and I would have been happy with that. Yea, that didn’t happen and the request for it resulted in more headaches which took some time to resolve. Payback’s a bitch.

So, why did it happen? It happened for a few reasons.
1) The abuse. It was always there, never a single word of praise, never any reparation for the extra hours and sacrifice of any semblance of a social life outside of work. He hires young, exploits and makes you feel like shit no matter what good stuff you turn out. As the only foreigner, I was a convenient punching bag.
2) The entrapment. In all the time I worked there and pulled in some serious work and innovation, I never got my promised raises. At the same time I was reminded of my complicated visa situation. I saw what he was going to do coming from a mile away.
3) The headhunters. I had been getting calls and emails from real companies for a while and LRW was the best one yet. I had to go for it, I knew I was going for it and my plan was to get back to the US for Xmas, finalize it, get back to China, give notice, help transition and then leave gracefully. Well, that didn’t happen and I knew it wouldn’t given 1 and 2.
4) Jude. She was the only thing in China giving me any motivation anymore and she was leaving. Work had stripped me of my social life completely and she was pretty much “it” for me. Add onto that the fact that if we won the contract for endless DeAgostini Mag/DVD work, I was going to be running it in addition to everything else. It was off focus from what I wanted to do, and there was nothing I could do about it. Time to leave.
5) The glass ceiling. I was #2 in the company and no promises ever happened. No insurance, no raises, no profit sharing, no bonuses from work I brought in, no benefits. There was nowhere to go but elsewhere and #2 was screwing that option for me.

So, it happened and it was bound to happen anyways. I knew that even if I had played the game the right way, I would have been attacked the instant I gave notice… because I made that company work and ran the only thing with a future.

So, with that out of the way, and me speaking from the future, I get to give the “other side” of events.
After I left that night, the boss picked up a computer, threw it at the wall and called the cops claiming that I had thrown it at him and ran away. He wanted to file a false report and had the goons in the office file false testimony. Well, just his luck, it was the same police who came back and laughed at him. They had seen me off and made sure I got back home ok. In fact, at one point they turned off and headed back and had another car escort me. Guess this was that that was. Oops.

2 weeks after I left, everyone with any talent left with no advance notice. They were sick of the shit too and knew that my leaving meant that he would be overseeing everything personally and micromanaging them… which is something that I had worked out of them and they liked my management style.

Mojo has died, cutting off operating revenue from the company and resulting in 5 people being fired.

The social insurance premiums which are paid in part by employees and in part by the company (this is law), were collected from the employees, but never paid by the company. Yep, he just stole their money. They were thrilled about that one.

My platforms were left 99% operational, but with me holding onto everything else in terms of documentation and roadmaps. This is the price that is paid for never getting me a company computer and forcing me to pay for and use my own personal one. Good luck finishing something you never understood and the programmers all leaving under bad terms.

Pretty much everyone who matters in any capacity has since left the company and there is little left of it now, apart from massive overhead and a lack of talent.